Father of man killed by Kenosha police asks for FBI investigation

A Kenosha father who claims police have covered up his son's death for nearly a decade is asking the FBI to look into the incident.

Michael E. Bell was shot and killed by a Kenosha police officer in 2004. Officers said 21-year-old Bell struggled with them and then grabbed for an officer's gun.

"The original investigation showed that the police department did their investigation and produced information to the district attorney and said it was justifiable," said Ronald Frederick, president of the Kenosha Police and Fire Commission.

Bell's father, Michael M. Bell, has been working for eight years to prove that the officers' account of what happened was not accurate.

Tuesday Bell presented the Commission with the findings of an independent investigator.

Bell hired investigator Ira Robins to look into the incident, and the two men are now urging the FBI to open an investigation.

Bell said his evidence shows that officers changed their stories multiple times, and that an officer's gun holster became caught on the squad car, which may have led police to think Bell was reaching for the gun.

"There's not one shred of evidence that my son had a hand on anybody's gun," Bell told the commission. He also said he has "loads of evidence that the police in this town were lying and this was a cover-up."

Police Chief John Morrissey said an FBI agent came to Kenosha last week for what was called a "meet and greet." He said his officers and the commission are prepared to cooperate fully should the FBI launch an investigation.

"I don't think anybody can push the FBI," Frederick said. "If the FBI feels they have enough evidence to do something, they probably will."

While an internal police investigation cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, the Bell family did receive a civil settlement from the city.

Bell has used funds from that settlement to launch the independent investigation, as well as for purchasing billboards questioning why police are allowed to investigate their own incidents.

The commission is scheduled to meet in January, and Frederick said he hoped that all of Bell's information would be reviewed by that time.

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